Re: JPMorgan Chase to strengthen offshoring to India

From: Richard Heathfield <invalid_at_invalid.invalid>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 21:51:19 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <dnnfon$lah$1@nwrdmz03.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>

Howard Brazee said:

> On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:10:23 +0000 (UTC), Richard Heathfield
> <invalid_at_invalid.invalid> wrote:
>

>>When I'd crossed the last 'i' and dotted the final 't', my result (which,
>>yes, I handed in) was: 2.997 metres per second. This means that, if I
>>break into a slowish run, then according to the Lorentz-Fitzgerald
>>equations I acquire imaginary mass, and can only decelerate by running
>>harder.

>
> That's one of the places where slide rule training helps. You can't
> do anything with a slide rule without being able to guess the proper
> order of magnitude of the answer.

Well, oddly enough, I did actually learn how to use a slide rule at school. I had a really nice one in a tough blue plastic case. (I wonder what happened to it?) Anyway, I didn't happen to use a slide rule for this; it was more a case of native stupidity - I knew perfectly well how fast light is, but that real world knowledge somehow didn't filter through to my calcs.

> Didn't someone write a story where people live in everyday life with a
> very low speed of light?

You may be thinking of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series. This isn't the only or even the main scientific spoof in the book, but it's mentioned occasionally. Light is slowed as it passes through a magical field. IIRC the speed of light on the Discworld is around 600mph.

-- 
Richard Heathfield
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999
http://www.cpax.org.uk
email: rjh at above domain (but drop the www, obviously)

Received on Tue Dec 13 2005 - 15:51:19 CST